Ahoy!
Few days ago I received message that I have two more weeks before work, so... what did I do? I felt relieved and bought 25 kg of clay! So... I tried to fix my mold... as much as I could with filler... Pointless job... I guess it's much better to just clean up the clay-man... because then I must only cut, but fixing mold means building up from emptiness... Only the upper edge was the one which needed to build up... It came out awful, but I guess it may work...
Anyway... I put those pieces of mold together with tape... In the bottom I put wooden ring and made it fast with glue... This is for hollow bottom...

Then I started to mix the clay with water... I didn't waste my money for plastificator nor formsil... I don't know how much they could have change things... Anyway... It was said that for 10 kg of powder must put 4 l of water... I thought that maybe 1 kg would be enough for my mold... So... 400 mg of water... Mmjah... Nope! No way... Must add water... and more... and more... and more... I put at least 1 additional litre of water in the bucket... before it started to change little bit like if you add some more water then it's getting possible to pour it... So I added some more water till it looked okay... I have no idea where those 10 kg and 4 l numbers has come from... At last I got more than two times of cubage of clay then I thought I needed... I wanted 1 litre, got almost 2,5 litre... I poured the clay in the mold and shaked it like hulagirls do it with their asses... It was a real long shaky song...

So I waited half hour, meanwhile I had to pour some more clay in it, because the level kept lowering in the mold... Now I was pretty happy that i had so much clay ready to pour... Oki, half hour was over, so I turned it around and tried to slip it out... I thought that it's all stuck and plans to stay there forever and I patted on the upside bottom... Well, really it wasn't necessary... Result of my work was catastrophic... This "mug" does not have destiny to carry some rum-coctail in it... ever... I also noticed some bubblehole's in the walls... and the wooden bottom came off and fell also out... and... you know... like them catastrophs are... everything is f*cked up in the end... That's my fallen out wooden bottom on the edge...

Times went by and I found out that wooden piece is really bad idea to have it inside... I had never seen wood in liquid condition before but now I did... It shrinked and... Picture says it...

But... Really... I didn't want to depress you by showing unlucky tiki-mug attempts... That was not my plan... So I try to finish this post with more positive way... I glued, shaped and drew Ku... Look, he's smiling to you here!

And then I carved him... I guess that before starting any mold of him I want to cut him little bit more... and sandpaper and stuff... But he is almost ready I think...

And here's my Kumuhonua who is come out from mold... He is really badass guy! Reminds me Rambo... or that striped guy from "Commando" movie... Anyway... You meet him, don't you mess with him...

So... Now... I guess I may try some more unlucky attempts in these two weeks... for just to learn what kind of problems is in that clay-business and stuff... but more serious mugging will continue in spring... There must come a day when those guys will hold coctails in them... Must come!

Ahoy!
Today I opened the mold and had a first look at my catastrophic Kumuhonua prototype... Not too bad really... Ofcourse this particular Tiki will stay sober forever, but this is not important... I learned lot of things.
The bottom problem I think I'll solve the way that I will press the wooden ring into the bottom after I'll take it out of mold... Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't...
You may never use filler in the mold! Nowhere! The clay will get stuck in it... For example I filled some holes in the backside of mold... and now my prototype-Tiki has a bullet-hole in the back, because that part of clay got stuck to mold and just rub the piece off... All the surface problems (specially between and on teeth) are because of filler... There are lot of places where those fillerpieces came off of mold and got stuck to prototype... So I had to remove it with knife... and fix the surface as much as I could...

Next time I must take a long stick and stir it inside to lose bubbles from edges... There are some in my prototype...
Next time when I pour the clay out, I must do it by moving the mold around... that all the clay would not slip from one side... At moment the thickness of sides are not equal... plus ofcourse the damage which the falling wooden bottom caused...
I guess my clay had right amount of water inside, sides got something around 5 mm thick... I guess it's ok for firing...
One side of top broke off all because of filler... Mold was made by filler in this part...

And here it is... The first Kumuhonua... with bullethole in the back and no bottom... I cleaned those three vertical lines from top to bottom... Worked little bit with teeth and few places, but didn't give too much attention to refinement, because I have to make a new mold anyway...

I like the result... The looks is exactly as I have wanted it... and now I have much more faith that the coctail-loving Kumuhonua will come alive one day!

You've done very well. It's not easy. I'm lucky to have Dan help me with each step. I'm looking forward to when you start to glaze. Duncan IN glazes show detail really well but they also show up every defect even it it is a pin hole. Good Luck, Wendy
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Well, yeah, glazing is in far-away-future... But I've already looked little bit of those glazes... I guess I should look at glazes which are available in my country... and also it is important how many colors of it are available... because I want to use same kind of glazes for all my tikis... or at least those five which is my first mission (Kanaloa and Kane doesn't even know yet that I'm gonna make them)... So... I need brown, red, grey, green, blue and something purple-like... and they all must be in appropriate tone... Plus they must be suitable for tableware... So... I have looked these here... http://www.botz-glasuren.de/steinzeug-glasuren-farben/?L=1 I'm not sure how good they are showing details on surface, but if they don't hide everything, then it's ok for me... I'm not really too interested of making effect that lines are like drawn on by pencil...
Thanks, I need luck! ...and a lot of it... together with knowledges... obviously...

I arrived around month ago and my holy tiki mission is proceeding... Today the box for mold got finished... Not the sh*tty one as the previous ones, but the pretty good one... I forgot to make a picture, but maybe next time... This box is not for one-time-use now... Appropriate size for all my tiki-zoo...

I just re-read all three pages. You are a funny guy. Best wishes for success. Remember that you can let some slip firm up and use it like clay. You could make a bottom as long as the cast hasn't started to dry out. You just make a circle of clay on top of plastic wrap so it doesn't stick to the table. They put some wet slip on top of it as glue. Then stick your bottomless tiki on the circle of clay and smooth the outside. On the inside run a paint brush or a sponge on a long stick around to smooth it out. You can do anything with the clay before it dries, even add horns.

Thank you for your feedback and support! I've poured also other parts of mold few days ago and now it dries... I made it three-piece mold again and as you can see from previous pictures I attached a cylinder to Tiki's head so that the Tiki itself would stay more inside part of the mold and would not break so easily when I'm gonna try to open it. Hope it works. After 1,5 weeks I try to open it. So far I'm gonna have some rock 'n' roll trip...

The mold is opened now. I was positively surprised that the mold got opened pretty easily. I had also put some tapes between the sides so it was like isolation between them. Result is pretty good. There's not much airholes, because I used very waterish plaster. The only problem is that the wooden boy took the water from plaster to inside of him and started to grow and it gave a pressure to plaster, so now the plaster has some cracks, but it is not a real problem I guess. I just hope the mold itself doesn't broke in two... Some very few little details were cut off (got stuck to wooden boy), but I glued them back, I hope it will stay there, if it doesn't, also not too big problem. Now the mold is drying... and I'm afraid it will do it pretty long time. Can't wait to start with clay again. This time there's a lot more hope to get my first mug finished! I ordered and received my first Hawaiian shirt for case when I have to celebrate my first mug... so... you can see I really have a hope!

Looks like a sevicable mold to me! It doesn't need to be perfect, you will always need to get rid of seam lines and correct little problems anyway. But the better a mold is, the less time you will have to spend cleaning it up. Congrats on your first Hawaiian shirt those are probably hard to find where you are. Best wishes to your continued success!

On 2013-06-17 13:06, MadDogMike wrote:Looks like a sevicable mold to me! It doesn't need to be perfect, you will always need to get rid of seam lines and correct little problems anyway. But the better a mold is, the less time you will have to spend cleaning it up. Congrats on your first Hawaiian shirt those are probably hard to find where you are. Best wishes to your continued success!

Exactly my thoughts... Yeap!
And yes, I ordered the shirt through ebay from Honolulu... So... This one is not "made in China"... Thanks!